This invention relates to a lawn mower, and, more particularly, it is concerned with a power-operated lawn mower of a type, in which the cutting blade thereof is driven by an internal combustion engine, and electric motor, or like other prime movers.
In this type of lawn mower, most of injuries caused to an operator during its use is due to the rotating cutting blades. As the safety measures against such possible danger, there has been proposed a construction such that a switching device is provided at a position of a handle grip for the lawn mower, the switch being closed when the handle is gripped by the operator, whereby the prime mover continues its operation as long as the handle is gripped, and it stops its operation when the operator leaves his hands off the handle grip.
In the above-described safety device, however, when the operator requires to leave his hands off the handle grip very frequently, there would arise inconveniences such that, in the case of the internal combustion engine being used with the lawn mowing machine, the engine should be re-started at every time, and, moreover, the engine starting device should be so constructed that the starting operation may be done at the position of the handle grip, hence the construction of the starting device for the engine becomes complicated. On the other hand, in the case of the electric motor being used with the lawn mower, such frequent motion (rotation) and stoppage of the electric motor unavoidably impairs durability of the electric motor.